John Muir Trail - Red's Meadow to Tuolumne Meadows 2016

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Sunday September 4, 2016
Backpacking from Red's Meadow to the Minarets

Monday September 5, 2016
Backpacking from the Minarets to Garnet Lake

Next
Tuesday September 6, 2016
Backpacking from Garnet Lake to Rush Creek

07:09
Kent's pic
Sunny and brisk on Labor Day morning

I decided I wanted to see if I could find Minaret Lake or the mountains.
We'd been in trees all afternoon yesterday and could never get a clear
picture of the Minarets.
Jed and Kent had no interest in adding any unnecessary miles to today's
hike.
I spent perhaps 20 minutes total hiking up the trail, decided that I
wasn't close to the lake, taking a picture and GPS track of my high
spot, then turning around.
Once I checked at home, I had gone a 1/4 mile up the trail, and the lake was another 6/10 mile and 300 feet of vertical.

07:20

PANO - scroll right

The mountain in the foreground is so small it is barely discernable
from a distance against the backdrop of the Minarets.

07:21
Looking east at Mammoth Mountain

We broke camp and started downhill.

09:39
Minarets

09:41

09:46
Kent's pic

09:46
Kent's pic

09:49

10:33
Jed's pointed the way we just came, the wrong way... fortunately both
he and Kent smiling
The trailhead we'd missed about 20 hours ago.
If one is simply hiking along, one would not necessarily notice that
the main trail makes a 90 degree turn (shown above).
The Minaret Lake trail continues straight ahead, and the only sign at
the trail junction faces the wrong direction - 90 degrees away from the
'main' trail.
I am quite confident I'm not the first person who missed this junction.

We've lost about 1,200 feet of elevation, back to 8174 feet, and we're
headed back up.
Distance hiked today 3.7 miles
Distance from Red's Meadow on the JMT 3.8 miles
Our total distance hiked due to floundering up Minaret Canyon 11.2 miles

13:29
Seasonal stream and bridge
elevation 9491 feet
Distance hiked today 7 miles
Net distance from Red's Meadow on the JMT 7.1 miles
Our total distance hiked due to floundering up Minaret Canyon 14.5 miles

13:42

14:00
Gladys Lake
I had planned to camp at either Gladys or Rosalie Lake last night.
We took a quick detour to see the lake, it was too gorgous to skip.

elevation 9606 feet
Distance hiked today 7.7 miles
Net distance from Red's Meadow on the JMT 7.8 miles
Our total distance hiked due to floundering up Minaret Canyon 15.2 miles

14:01

14:04
Kent's pic

14:15

The first of many, many climbs out of one lake over a pass of some sort
and down to the next lake

PANO - scroll right

14:21
Approaching Rosalie Lake

14:25
Approaching Rosalie Lake

14:25
Approaching Rosalie Lake

14:31
Rosalie Lake
Words cannot describe how cool this place was.
Looking west
The trail continued around the right lakeshore and exited up in the gap
in center of the picture.

I will be coming back and camping here. Soon!

Elevation 9390 feet
Distance hiked today 8.5 miles
Net distance from Red's Meadow on the JMT 8.6 miles
Our total distance hiked due to floundering up Minaret Canyon 16 miles

14:32
Rosalie Lake
Looking south or southwest

14:33
Rosalie Lake

14:37
Kent's pic
Rosalie Lake

14:37
Kent's pic
Rosalie Lake

14:43
Kent's pic
Rosalie Lake
Believe it or not Jed was still with us, he just seems to avoid the
lakes :)

14:51

14:54

PANO - scroll right

15:04
Kent's pic
After a brief but unwelcome climb out of Rosalie Lake we were treated
to a lengthy and tiring 600 feet drop into Shadow Lake.
I thought Shadow Lake was the most beautiful lake we'd seen so far
Unfortunately the trees made getting a great picture of the lake nearly
impossible.
Camping is also banned anywhere near Shadow Lake or Shadow Creek due to
past overuse.

15:21

PANO - scroll right

elevation 8,844 feet
Distance hiked today 10 miles
Net distance from Red's Meadow on the JMT 10.1 miles
Our total distance hiked due to floundering up Minaret Canyon 17.5 miles

I was determined to get pictures of the sunrise at either Garnet Lake
or Thousand Island Lake, which meant we needed to get to Garnet Lake
tonight.
Garnet Lake was still another 3.4 miles ahead to the closest campsites....

15:27
Shadow Lake

15:31
Kent's pic
Shadow Lake

15:49
Kent's pic
Shadow Creek

While hiking out of Shadow Creek was saw the trail continued around
south to Ediza Lake, Iceberg Lake, and Cecile Lake.
These were the lakes we had approached last night hiking up Minaret
canyon
Kent was not pleased to learn that it may have been possible to continue
around that way.
However none of us had any route information, maps, or GPS tracks for
that route.
After researching it once I got home, it turns out that this route is
only passable some years, as there's no trail around Cecile Lake and
you may need to use an ice axe even when it is 'passable'.

16:53

PANO - scroll right

Looking south toward Volcanic Ridge
Steve Fosset's plane crashed on the other side of Volcanic Ridge, roughly right over the big tree in the left foreground.

17:40
Looking north at what we hope is the top of the pass before we head back down to Garnet Lake
We've hike up nearly 1000 feet of vertical since we left Shadow Creek
Kent has left Jed and I in the dust and got about 5 minutes ahead of us

17:41
Looking back south toward Shadow Creek and Mammoth Mountain

17:47
Kent's pic

17:47
Kent's pic
Looking south at Shadow Creek and Volcanic Ridge

17:52
Looking north toward Garnet Lake

17:56
Garnet Lake

17:56
Looking east toward Clarice Lake

17:57
Kent's pic
Garnet Lake
As Jed and I approached Garnet Lake we couldn't find an unoccupied campsite.
We weren't supposed to camp within 100' of the trail, or within 100' of water, or within 1/4 mile of the outlet of Garnet Lake.
We also couldn't find Kent, he was still way ahead of us.
I looked at the campsites for a few minutes before deciding they were
too full and most likely too close to both the trail and the lake
anyway before commiting to at least another half mile of hiking to get
around this end of Garnet Lake and to the next campsite... which
hopefully was less full than these were...
The map I was carrying marked relatively few spots for camping, and most of them were near lakes.
I was slowly appreciating that there were very few spots along the JMT
that were good for camping - legally far enuogh away from water
supplies and the trail, but still near water, and flat.

Garnet Lake south campsites
elevation 9,813 feet
Distance hiked today 13.4 miles
Net distance from Red's Meadow on the JMT 13.5 miles
Our total distance hiked due to floundering up Minaret Canyon 20.9 miles

18:22
Kent's pic
Bridge over Garnet Lake outlet

18:31
Looking east at Garnet Lake outlet
The River trail apparently comes up the Middle Fork of the San Joaquin River and up this drainage to meet the JMT.
The area was gorgeous, this was clearly the best place to camp except it is not allowed..

18:31
Bridge over Garnet Lake outlet looking west

18:31
Bridge over Garnet Lake outlet looking west

When we finally got to campsites on the north side of Garnet Lake there
were a few people camped out, we'd be camping about 100' from them at
best.
I finally found a spot under a tree to pitch my tent and invited Jed to
sleep in my tent for the night since there wasn't much room.
Kent found a spot nearby on a ledge that was excellent.I
was worried that the entire area was so steep if a bear started messing
with my bear box at night it would roll straight into the lake, which
would be bad.

elevation 9,759 feet
Distance hiked today 14.2 miles
Net distance from Red's Meadow on the JMT 14.3 miles
Our total distance hiked due to floundering up Minaret Canyon 21.7 miles